Nothing could be done to save the champion mare, who lay on the ground with a shattered leg, about to be put to sleep.

Verema’s death shocked everyone.Source:Supplied

The horse snapped her cannon bone, a large bone in her lower leg. It left vets with no choice but to euthanase the million-dollar mare.

Today,

Now as the nation gears up for the biggest event on the racing calendar, debate is still raging around whether the Melbourne Cup is stopping Australia for all the right reasons.

The moment Verema's leg snapped.Source:YouTube

Today, Japanese racehorse Admire Rakti collapsed and died after pulling up distressed after the 2014 Melbourne Cup.

The horse, who started a well-backed Melbourne Cup favourite but faded to last after leading, dropped dead in his stall shortly after the race.

The news of Admire Rakti’s sad death came just minutes before further reports that another 2014 Melbourne Cup runner, Araldo, may be have to be euthanased. The Mike Moroney-trained stayer fractured a cannon bone (leg bone) jumping a fence after shying at a spectator’s flag.

Animal rights activist group the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) recently launched a new video as part of its latest campaign to argue that the industry is cruel. It is concerned not just about what happens on the track, but about what happens to horses after they finish their careers.

Verema was put down after the Melbourne Cup.Source:AAP

But Racing Victoria jumped out of the gates with a campaign of its own, claiming the industry is anything but cruel.

In the CPR video, reportedly taken on the night of the Cox Plate two weeks ago, 11 thoroughbreds and nine standardbreds (harness racing horses) are waiting in a holding pen at a Melbourne knackery.

Some appear obviously wounded and limping, others have bleeding sores.

These horses, according to the video by the CPR, are among the 13,000 horses which are killed every year in what it says is a bi-product of the racing industry.

However, racing officials believe that figure is grossly inaccurate.

CPR spokesman Ward Young said the group was so horrified by the anonymously-supplied footage that it had lodged an official cruelty complaint to Victorian Government regulatory body Primesafe.

This horse has an obvious leg wound. Picture: The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses.Source:Supplied

Mr Young said while some of the horses obviously needed to be euthanased, he claimed the animals were not put down until two days later.

“There are two issues here,” he said. “One is the immediate welfare issue and why critically injured horses are being left overnight, which is totally unacceptable.

“If it’s critically injured it needs to be euthanased straight away.”

He said the second was there was no mandatory retirement plan for former racehorses and that a proposal put to the Australian Racing Board to spend one per cent of its funds on such a plan was rejected.

Mr Young said while he acknowledged injured horses needed to be euthanased, those with behavioural issues were also often sent to the knackeries when they could simply just be suffering from a small health problem.

A still from the video from The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, which shows a horse waiting to be put down.Source:Supplied

Last month, CPR came under fire for a huge billboard board featuring a dead horse, which was on the side of CityLink between Footscray Rd and Racehorse Rd.

The advert, which screamed “Is the party really worth it?”, formed part of the Horse Racing Kills campaign, and was later taken down and branded as offensive and distasteful by Racing Victoria chief executive Bernard Saundry,The Herald Sun reported.

The activists’ campaign calls for racegoers to stop spending at the Spring Carnival and instead donate to their cause.

But Racing Victoria hit back at the cruelty claims with its own campaign, which aims to dispel the myths and set the facts straight.

This campaign also aims to prove the animals’ welfare is well taken care of.

The industry does have a retirement rule that requires owners to notify authorities the reason why their horse has been retired and its whereabouts post-racing.

On the CPR video, horses are shown with clear wounds and some limping.Source:Supplied

According to Racing Victoria’s website: “Statistics show that more than 90 per cent of horses leaving the racing industry are rehomed directly to the equestrian, pleasure or breeding industries.”

In his letter, which also appears on the Racing Victoria website, he writes how proud he is to be part of a team that is so enthusiastic and dedicated to the welfare of the horse and the success of the racing industry.

However, Mr Young said all that was required for a horse to be considered rehomed by the racing industry was for owners to tick a box on a form, which meant they were going to have a high return rate.

“Who is actually going to say they sent their horse to slaughter?” he asked.

He added this also didn’t include the large number of foals bred for the racing industry who didn’t make it to the track.

In Australia there has been a 23 per cent reduction in the number of foals born over the last 10 years, however the number of horses that have raced has remained the same, racing officials say.

Mr Young said the industry still had lessons to learn from Verema’s death, and also turned his attention to the overuse of the whip and the predominance of two-year-old racing in Australia.

In addition to calling for a mandatory retirement plan for all racehorses, Animals Australia is pushing to end the excessive use of whips, and wants jumps racing abolished.

Spokeswoman Lisa Chalk said Australians were appalled by the sight of tired horses being flogged with whips and were sick of hearing of yet another horse being killed on the jumps racing track.

“And they certainly don’t think not being fast enough is justification for thousands of young and healthy horses ending up in knackeries each year,” she said.

‘The Australian racing industry will continue to struggle with its public image and declining popularity until it delivers meaningful, cultural change and this must address the three big issues: whipping, jumps racing and the killing of thousands of young and healthy horses each year.”